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Research

Research Background

Some Benton and Franklin County records are available at the Washington State Digital Archives.

Some Benton and Franklin County records have been archived at the Washington State Archives Central Regional Branch. Visit this site to determine what you can access at the archive and what you must access at the county courthouse.

Online Research and TCGS Library Research

Check our collection of Local Research to see if your family of interest is included in this already researched set of families.

Use our Library Resource Catalog to find books, CDs or microfilms of interest in our physical collection. The item descriptions in our catalog often include the surnames included or the counties covered. If you can’t visit our library and do the research yourself consider using our research services described below.

Research TCGS Can Do For You

Our research committee is available to assist you with records available in Benton and Franklin Counties. Because we are a small society with limited resources, we need to request a donation to keep our digital and physical collections safe and usable.

Look-ups

For indexed resources in our TCGS Library, we ask for a $5.00 donation to look-up one name (with variations) in one resource. Add $5.00 for each additional name or resource. Send a SASE if you wish paper copies. Otherwise, include an email address where we can send .jpg images of your requested records.

Multiple Requests and Larger Projects

For more than 3 look-ups or for resources outside our library (e.g. Richland Library, Mid-Columbia Library, courthouse, cemeteries), we ask for a $20 donation for each 2 hours of research. (The museums require an entrance fee, in addition.)

When making a request, please be specific about who we should look for, with the dates and places for the relevant events. Include names of pertinent relatives so we know if we’ve found the right person. Mention any resources you would like us to check.

If your request is going to take longer than 2 hours, please contact us directly so we can talk about what is available and what we can do.